Originally Posted by
cyccommute
One story
There is a light mist, just enough to be annoying. I was at the end of a long day and my hotel was half a mile up the road when all of a sudden I hear “WHOOP! WHOOP!” from the state patrol car right behind me. I stopped, of course, and as the drizzle dripped from my helmet visor, I asked the approaching officer how could I help her? She said that they had gotten calls on me from all kinds of people and she was just checking. She said “you do look like you know what you’re doing. But we have to check.”
“License, please, and your Social Security number.” And with that she went back to her nice dry car leaving me standing there with drizzle dripping off of my helmet visor. I stood there for a few minutes before she finally brought my license back and asked me if I lived around here. I said no I’m on a tour of the Mississippi.
“Well have a nice night and a good trip.“
Thus ended one of the most bizarre encounters I have ever had on any tour and I’ve been doing this for 40 damn years.
that is certainly a bizarre one. "All kinds of people" very much touches on the perception thing that some folks have of someone on a bike. I could be way off base, but I assume this comes from the wide social divide of there being more poor folks around, and homeless people using bikes, so "concerns" over seeing a "suspect" individual riding past, maybe up to "no good"?
One could also suspect that some nosey old busy-body made the calls and the cops felt obliged to respond.
Heck a few years back I got pulled over in my car by a cop because I was driving 90k in a 100-110 zone, so 55mph in a 65 zone. Practically no one on this two lane in each direction interstate type highway, a sunny calm day, and the cop told me I was driving too slowly, could be dangerous......I think the chances were pretty good that he and his buddy (a second police car showed up also) were bored and needed to break up the day. Or he imagined a drunk driving slowly not to be noticed-- who the heck knows, kinda like your story.
oh, whats the story with the upside down big mushroom way up on a pine tree branch?